Opposition condemns police action against farmers’ protest, says Modi govt. at war with farmers

Farmers were demanding only the implementation of what were promised to them two years ago, says Congress leader Surjewala

A Farmer takes a boy as he has been injured in clashes with the police personnel who were firing tear gas canisters on them while they were advancing towards Delhi to seek enactment of a law on minimum support price at Shambhu Barrier in Punjab on February 13, 2024. | Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap

Condemning the police action against the protesting farmers, including the use of tear gas shells, and sealing multiple entry points to the Capital, the Opposition said the Narendra Modi government seems to be at war with the farmers. 

At a press conference in Delhi, Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said that the government is using unusually heavy force against the farmers even though they have held peaceful protests so far. “The way they have dug ditches, blocked roads with concrete boulders and heavy vehicles, it feels like we are in the midst of a war. The government is treating the farmers’ protest at par with attack from enemy country,” Mr. Surjewala said. 

The Congress leader observed that the farmers were only demanding the implementation of the promises that had been made to them two years ago, like the guarantee on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and waiving off debts of farmers and farm labourers. Demanding that Prime Minister Modi himself should directly talk to the farmers to get them justice, Mr. Surjewala asked whether the farmers did not have the right and freedom to come to the national capital in support of their demands. He asked where the farmers should go if not to the Prime Minister and the government of the time for seeking justice. 

West Bengal Chief Minister and Chairperson of Trinamool Congress party, Mamata Banerjee also joined in condemning the measures taken to control the protests, dubbing it as “BJP’s brutal assault” on farmers. 

“How can our country progress when the farmers are attacked with tear gas shells for fighting for their basic rights? I strongly condemn the brutal assault on our farmers by the BJP,” Ms. Banerjee said in a post on X.

“Instead of suppressing their protest, the BJP must focus on humbling their inflated egos, power-hungry ambitions, and inadequate governance that has harmed our nation,” she added.

CPI General Secretary D. Raja said measures like imposing section 144 of the CrPc across Delhi – prohibiting mass gatherings – reeks of authoritarianism. “On one hand, the Modi government boasts about giving Bharat Ratna to M.S. Swaminathan, but it refuses to implement his report that recommended legal backing for MSP. First, they commit blunders and then they use brutal force against those who point out the blunders,” Mr. Raja said. 

All India Forward Bloc General Secretary G. Devarajan said that the party is standing in solidarity with the farmers. “The government must remember that when the strike was called off in 2022, the government had promised the farmers that their demands would be resolved favourably,” he added.